Thtir Eggs and Nests. 5 



by their instinct, if not their intelligence, to forsake 

 their treasured charge ; in the other, they suffer from 

 pitiless robbery of what they most care for. But if 

 the parent-bird be not rudely and repeatedly driven 

 from her nest, — if the nest be not pulled out of shape, 

 or the containing bushes or environing shelter be not 

 wilfully or carelessly disturbed — if two or three eggs 

 are still left for her to incubate, there is, so far as 

 human observation can reach, no pain, or concern, or 

 uneasiness, to the little owners from the abstraction of 

 one ^^g or more ; and, therefore, of course, no cruelty 

 in the abstraction. The legitimate pursuit of sport in 

 the stubbles and turnip fields, or on the open moor, 

 does not differ more widely from the cruel proceedings 

 of the cold-blooded, hard-hearted slaughter of his 

 dozens of Rock birds (many of which are always left to 

 die lingeringly and miserably), than the object or 

 manner of action of the true lover of birds and their 

 ways and nests and eggs, from the ruthless destruc- 

 tion of every nest and its contents which may happen 

 to be met with by some young loutish country 

 savage. 



Again, a few words more, and this time about 

 classification. I should like, if such a course were 

 profitable, or even practicable, to make just such a 

 classification as an active, sharp-eyed, observant, per- 

 severing nest-hunter would, as it were, find ready 

 made for him, by the results of his rambles and in- 

 vestigations and discoveries ; that is to say, to group 

 the birds and their eggs according to their frequent 

 occurrence, their comparative, but still not positive, 

 infrequency, or their downright rarity. By this 



